Truth, fake news, and consequence

IYIELD my space to a former classmate, Atty. Braulio “Bong” Tansinsin, who weighs in on the burning issue of fake news. Bong begins his Jeremiah with the movie “The Man Who Never Was” (Which Gary Lising translates literally as “Ang taong hindi naligo” …or about the man who never bathed.)

Bong, who is sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,. begins:

*** Many may remember “The Man Who Never Was” as just a good 1956 UK movie. But it is a true WW 2 account by Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu about a British intelligence plan to trick the enemy into weakening Sicily’s defenses before the 1943 attack, using a dead man with faked papers.

Before D-Day to liberate occupied Europe, the Allied Command debated long and hard over troop losses in the attempt to make the landings because of intense firepower from Hitler’s Wehrmacht. Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower could not bear to lose 10,000 Allied soldiers at beachhead.

DISINFORMATION. Operation Mincemeat was an inspired ruse, using a fake invasion plan and fake military intelligence. It involved floating a dead body off the coast of Spain to drift ashore into an area where German secret agents operate. The corpse (a non-existent Royal Marine named Major William Martin), would appear as a plane crash victim, carrying false letters in his valise about a forthcoming Allied invasion of Greece (instead of the real target – Sicily).

The plan worked. The Germans believed the fake plan and rushed to shift their arsenal to defend the fake invasion site. With less German resistance, the invasion at Sicily succeeded – Allied forces made beachhead with tanks and war materiel. (Remember the movie “Saving Private Ryan”?)

*** “QUIRINO, THE BEST PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES!” After President Manuel Roxas collapsed and died of heart attack while speaking at Clark Air Base, his spare tire Vice President Elpidio Quirino assumed office. Many Filipinos appreciated Quirino because he knew how to move on. He forgave the Japanese who killed his wife et al so that he would be able to pull the Philippines out of the ravages of war. (Gen. Dwight Eisenhower said: “Manila is the most devastated city in the world – next only to Warsaw.”) Moreover, the Hukbalahap, the predecessor of today’s NPA, was knocking at the door.

FAKE NEWS ISN’T NEW. We do not really know why American CIA agent Col. Edward Lansdale wanted to replace Atty. Elpidio Quirino with Engr. Ramon Magsaysay. (See “The Ugly American “by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer) But Lansdale fed our newshawks the unconscionable canard about the “Golden Orinola” allegedly used by Quirino to pass water.

Moreover, reporting a Malacañang caucus with President Quirino, the gadfly Celso Cabrera wrote that the Liberal Party stalwart Jose Aquino said, “Porque estamos en poder?” (which he translated into “What are we in power for?”) This quotation set off alarm bells.

The account is disputed by historian Quintin Doroquez, who said that Avelino was willfully misquoted by Cabrera, who didn’t speak Spanish. Moreover, Doroquez said that Congressman Faustino Tobia later confided to the Avelino family that the entire quote was fabricated and that Avelino’s comment at that party caucus was on the Quirino administration’s dealing with the nation’s problems.

But fake news hath wrought its havoc. Col. Lansdale succeeded in feeding disinformation against Quirino, who would lose the Presidential elections to Magsaysay.

President Magsaysay was a popular Chief of State, but his term came to an abrupt end. He was flying back to Manila after speaking engagements in Cebu when the presidential plane “Mt. Pinatubo” crashed on Mt. Manunggal on March 16, 1957, with only one survivor, Nestor Mata. But that’s another story.)

*** IS FAKE NEWS ILLEGAL? What if, as the late Sen Miriam would say, that she was only joking?

Hindi ka na mabiro? Or, like when Pinoy said that he would lie on the rail tracks and let the MRT train crush him if he would fail to solve the problem?

Fake news may be immoral because God gave each of us lips to speak the truth.

It may be both immoral and criminal in PH when a person breaks the 8th commandment: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” The transgressor may be jailed for libel.

But many lawyers do not think fake news is a criminal offense. It will really be hard for Sen. Grace Poe to criminalize fake news. FEEDBACK: